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Case studies of arts organizations leveraging technology through new and novel approaches, research updates from AMTLab contributors, and monthly summaries of technological happenings in the arts management world.

As we conclude our series on Emerging Technologies for fundraising, we are excited for the opportunities facing the arts sector. As noted in early parts, digital giving is growing at a faster rate than individual giving overall, thus it is critical for fundraising professionals to develop or continue to engage in new digital pathways. The findings and recommendations from the national survey are below with our full report available here or for download in the publications section linked above and organized by content category.

Peer-2-Peer (P2P) campaigns are used often among the non-arts nonprofit community in the United States. 87% of Millennials and Generation Xers are willing to use peer-to-peer for their giving. P2P is a digital fundraising platform that strengthens the relationship between donors and arts organizations. It is an interactive platform where donors can be more actively engaged with their organizations and share their contributions with their peers. If arts organizations want to build deeper relationships with donors, they should try to include P2P in their fundraising plan. The following article explains how.

According to the 2018 Global NGO Technology Report, over "15% of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide regularly send text messages to donors and supporters." In addition, "43% of those NGOs use a Text To Give service for SMS fundraising." These trends continue in the United States, with the mGive Foundation's 2015 Text Donation Study finding "that for 46% of donors, giving via text is a preferred method." The most popular SMS campaigns tend to favor urgent crises, with over 65% of donors giving via text supporting disaster relief organizations, followed by health institutions and human services organizations. This particular study also referenced a "Giving Gap" where people who responded that they strongly favored using text as a method of donation rarely followed through with that wish. This led mGive to conclude that "it is likely that many donors are not being given ample opportunity to make text donations."

Given this evidence, there is a want from donors for text-based giving that is not being fulfilled. Here’s how your organization can learn to meet this demand.

Fundraising is a critical component of almost every nonprofit arts enterprise. This spring, the Arts Management and Technology Lab commissioned a national benchmarking analysis and survey of arts organizations on four emerging digital fundraising pathways: Text message / SMS giving, peer-to-peer portals, Facebook nonprofit tools, and mobile auction apps. The following kicks off a 5 part series that highlights the findings. This article offers specific statistics on fundraising with subsequent pieces providing details on the individual pathways and a summary of the national survey's findings.

NTEN's annual conference is always a special treat. Vendors and attendees all focused on making the world a better place while investigating the appropriate role technology plays in that transformation. With 144 sessions plus keynotes, Birds of a Feather lunch tables, Ignite talks and pre-conference workshops, to say the conference is robust is an understatement. The following are my main take-away from the conference, but if you are curious for more, be sure to check out their social channels with hashtag #18NTC.

AMT Lab is researching emerging digital fundraising tools so that arts organizations can, hopefully, take a bigger part of the 14% increase in online giving. With $380 billion dollars of giving in the USA in 2017 and more people than ever giving online, the future of fundraising is changing before us. And don't be fooled -- the majority of the online donors were older than 49 years old. To understand how the arts can maximize current and emerging fundraising opportunities, a benchmark of what is happening in the field today is underway.

2017 took AMT Lab researchers into the worlds of robots, smart cities, augmented reality, bias reducing technologies, digital advocacy, and so much more. The following offers a highlight and a small preview of what's to come in the 2018.

Finding data and analyzing it takes time, something in short supply for most arts managers. But without taking the time to collect and analyze data, arts managers are making decisions without knowledge. Here are two tools and one source to consider as you move forward in your work.